The Reflective Functioning Questionnaire–Revised– 7 (RFQ-R-7): A new measurement model assessing hypomentalization

Abstract

Although it is a widely used questionnaire, limitations regarding the scoring procedure and the structural validity of the eight-item Reflective Functioning Questionnaire (RFQ-8) were raised. The present study aimed to examine further the latent dimensionality of the RFQ-8 and to examine linear and non-linear associations between mentalization difficulties and maladaptive psychological characteristics. Data from two separate representative samples of young adults (N = 3890; females: 51.68%; mean age: 27.06 years [SD = 4.76]) and adults (N = 1385; females: 53.20%; mean age: 41.77 years [SD = 13.08]) were used. In addition to the RFQ-8, standardized questionnaires measured the levels of impulsivity, sensation seeking, rumination, worry and well-being. Confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) was used to test the model fit of competing measurement models. CFA revealed that a revised, seven-item version of the RFQ (RFQ-R-7) with a unidimensional structure showed the most optimal levels of model fit in both samples. Impulsivity, sensation seeking, rumination and worry consistently presented significant, positive, linear associations with general mentalization difficulties in both samples. Significant quadratic associations were also identified, but these relationships closely followed the linear associations between the variables and increased only marginally the explained variance. The supported unidimensional measurement model and the associations between the general mentalization difficulties factor and maladaptive psychological characteristics indicated that the RFQ-R-7 captures a dimension of hypomentalization ranging between low and high levels of uncertainty. Increasing levels of hypomentalization can indicate a risk for less adaptive psychological functioning. Further revisions of the RFQ-8 might be warranted in the future to ensure adequate measurement for hypermentalization.

Breaking the cycle: Mentalizing moderates and mediates the link between childhood sexual abuse and satisfaction with adult romantic relationships.

“…Also, the study was based on self-report measures, which could introduce response biases, especially for sensitive items such as recalling CSA. Moreover, despite the broad acceptance of the RFQ8 (Fonagy et al, 2016), recent studies have criticized its validity in assessing mentalizing (Horváth et al, 2023; Müller et al, 2022). Therefore, future research should include additional tools to assess mentalizing capacities.…”

A time to reflect: deviations from the balanced time perspective are associated with hypomentalization

“…The aim of the current study was to examine the relationship between mentalization measured by a version of the Reflective Functioning Questionnaire ( Fonagy et al, 2016 ), and time perspective as operationalized by Zimbardo and Boyd (1999) and Carelli et al (2011) . Initial analyses favored a unitary model of RFQ-8, which adds to the evidence that a single factor reflecting hypomentalization is sufficient to account for covariation of the items in this questionnaire (e.g., Horváth et al, 2023 ; Müller et al, 2022 ; Woźniak-Prus et al, 2022 ; Ruiz-Parra et al, 2023 ).…”

“…Scoring on either extreme on the Likert scale yield 1 to 3 points [3 2 1 0 0 0 0] or [0 0 0 0 1 2 3] for RFQc and RFQu, respectively ( Fonagy et al, 2016 ). As an alternative, the RFQ items have been regarded to reflect a single dimension (ranging from genuine mentalization to hypomentalization), where all of the eight items (except item 7, “I always know what I feel” which needs to be reversed as a higher score indicates certainty of lower hypomentalization) are averaged to provide an overall score (e.g., Woźniak-Prus et al, 2022 ), whereas another study ( Horváth et al, 2023 ) suggests that item 7 should be discarded before computing the composite score. Scoring could consider the entire range of responses to items (1–7 scoring) or, as suggested in the original study, recoding to 0-3 (0–3 scoring).…”

“…RFQ-8 is a widely used measure that showed good levels of internal consistency and was able to discriminate, for example, individuals with ADHD or borderline personality disorder from a healthy control group ( Perroud et al, 2017 ). However, several recent studies (e.g., Müller et al, 2022 ; Woźniak-Prus et al, 2022 ; Horváth et al, 2023 ) questioned the validity of separate scales for certainty (hypermentalization; i.e. a tendency to make assumption that go beyond what is reasonable, i.e., feeling of knowing exactly what others think) vs. uncertainty (hypomentalization; i.e.…”

The Role of Rumination as a Mediator of Psychological Distress Relationships and Nonsuicidal Self-Injury Behavior in Adolescent Victims of Bullying

“…This measuring instrument uses a Likert scale of 1 (never) to 4 (always), representing how often individuals ruminate. Scores are calculated by summing answers, where higher scores indicate a high level of rumination (Hoff & Muehlenkamp, 2009;Gu et al, 2020;Horváth et al, 2023). RRS item reads, brooding (Think what am I doing to deserve this?)…”